DECISION POINT: You are playing a 6-max $2-5 cash game with opponents you’ve observed to be playing a solid game. The action folds to you in the Hijack with J♥T♥ and you raise the table standard $15. The Cutoff calls, the Button and Blinds fold. The flop is 7♥2♣T♣ and action is on you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing in a $2-5 6-max cash game with just over $400 effective stacks. We are fairly new to the table and we do not have any significant information on anyone, although all players seem to be playing reasonably well. We are dealt JhTh in the Hijack seat and the Under The Gun player folds. Jack-Ten Suited is a part of our standard opening hand range from the Hijack so we make a standard raise for the table to $15. The Cutoff calls and everyone else folds.

The Cutoff’s range in this spot should be fairly condensed and capped. They are unlikely to have called with AA/KK/QQ/AK since it would encourage calls from remaining players left to act and be bad for their holding. The most likely hands in the Cutoff’s range would be some sort of mid-pair, broadway cards, or a mid to high suited connector making up most of their range.

We hold JT which makes it much less likely for the Cutoff to be holding TT, however 77 is a very real possibility as are 98s and some various Tx hands that dominate us. Our opponent will have some flush draws as well and many random overcard hands such as AJ/KJ/KQ. Holding top pair with a backdoor flush draw, our hand has some opportunities to improve and does benefit quite a bit from equity denial.

While this board is one we would often want to be checking out of position as the preflop raiser as it is fairly good for the Cutoff’s range, with our particular hand and due the overall board coordination we want to continuation bet. In this situation we want to use a slightly larger size of around $25-$30.

Betting around ¾ pot is the best play.